Accurate APA citation for article with multiple authors helps researchers give proper credit and allows readers to locate sources quickly. This guide focuses on formatting rules for journal articles with two or more authors, emphasizing clarity and consistency.
Following official Publication Manual standards ensures your references meet academic expectations across psychology, education, and social science disciplines. The guidance below addresses common scenarios and formatting details you will encounter in student papers and professional publications.
| Author Count | In-text Citation Format | Reference List Order | Use & Before Last Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two authors | (Smith & Lee, 2023) | Both authors listed | No |
| Three or four authors | (Chen et al., 2021) | All authors in first citation | Yes in reference list |
| Five or more authors | (Garcia et al., 2019) | First author then et al. | Yes in reference list |
| Group author | (World Health Organization, 2022) | Treat as author entity | N/A |
Formatting Rules for Articles With Multiple Authors
In-text Citation Approaches
For a journal article with three or more authors, APA style uses the first author surname followed by et al. in both parenthetical and narrative citations. When two or more multi-author sources share the first author, add enough subsequent author names or letters in the reference list to distinguish them.
With two authors, include both names joined by an ampersand in every citation. This approach maintains readability while preserving attribution, and it applies consistently across essays, lab reports, and literature reviews that follow APA format.
Organizing the Reference List Entry
Author Order and Punctuation
List authors in the same order as the article appears on the title page, up to twenty names. For works with twenty or more authors, include the first nineteen, an ampersand, and the final author. Use commas between author names and an ampersand before the final author in the reference list, even if the journal uses a different style.
Capitalize only the first word of the title and subtitle, and the first word of any proper nouns. Italicize the journal title and volume number, using sentence case for the article title and standard capitalization for subtitles inside the italicized journal title.
Handling Special Cases and Variations
Three to Twenty Authors
When an article has three to twenty authors, list all authors in the reference list. In the in-text citation after the first full mention, use the first author surname followed by et al. to keep citations concise while still acknowledging the full authorship in the reference list.
Check the specific journal or institutional style guide, as some publishers request slightly different handling of long author lists or require full author strings in all references, which can affect formatting consistency across publications.
Reference List Layout and Punctuation
Italics, Capitalization, and DOI Format
Format the reference entry as Author surname, Initials. (Year). *Title of article in sentence case*. *Title of Journal in Title Case and Italics*, *Volume*(Issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxxx
Include the issue number in parentheses immediately after the volume if the journal paginates by issue, and place the DOI at the end without labeling it as a URL. If a DOI is unavailable, use the official journal permalink or stable page URL to ensure readers can locate the source.
Applying APA Rules Across Academic Writing
- Verify the exact author count on the article title page before creating references.
- Use et al. from the second citation onward for sources with three or more authors.
- Italicize journal titles and volumes, and use sentence case for article titles.
- Include the DOI or stable URL to ensure readers can access the source online.
- Follow institutional or journal guidelines when they differ from the standard APA manual.
FAQ
Reader questions
How do I cite an online article with six authors in APA style?
List the first author surname followed by et al. in parentheses in-text, and in the reference list provide the surname and initials for all six authors up to twenty, followed by the article title, journal name in italics, volume, issue, pages, and DOI.
What changes if two articles share the first author and same year?
Add lowercase letters a, b, c after the year in both in-text citations and reference list entries to distinguish the sources, ordered by the order they appear on the reference page.
Should I include all authors when there are three to five of them in-text?
No, in the first in-text citation list all authors, but in subsequent citations and the reference list use the first author surname followed by et al. to maintain clarity and brevity.
How do I format a group author name in an in-text citation?
Treat the group author as the author, using the full name in the first citation and abbreviating where appropriate in later citations, followed by the year in parentheses.